Napoleonic Wars John Pine Coffin, fourth son of
The Rev. John Pine of Eastdown, Devonshire, who took the name of Coffin in 1797, by his wife, the daughter of James Rowe of Alverdiscot, Devonshire, was born on 16 March 1778. In 1795 he obtained a
cornetcy in the
4th Dragoons, in which James Dalbiac and
George Scovell were among his brother
subalterns, and became lieutenant therein in 1799. He was attached to the
quartermaster-general's staff of the army in Egypt in 1801, and was present at the surrender of
Cairo and the attack on
Alexandria from the westward. On the formation of the
Royal Staff Corps (for engineer and other departmental duties under the quartermaster-general), he was appointed to a company therein, but the year after was promoted to major and removed to the permanent staff of the quartermaster-general's department, in which capacity he was in Dublin at the time of
Emmet's
insurrection, and continued to serve in Ireland until 1806, afterwards accompanying
Lord Cathcart to the
Isle of Rugen and in the expedition against
Copenhagen in 1807. In 1808 he was sent to the Mediterranean as deputy quartermaster-general with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and was employed with the expedition to the
Bay of Naples, which ended in the capture of
Ischia and
Procida. In 1810 he organised the flotilla of
gunboats equipped for the defence of the
Straits of Messina, when
Murat's army was encamped on the opposite shore; and in 1813 he commanded the troops of a battalion of the
10th foot on board the
Thames, 32 guns, under Captain afterwards Admiral
Sir Charles Napier, and the
Furieuse, 36 (18-pounders), under Captain
William Mounsey, sent to attack the
Isle of Ponza, which was captured by the frigates sailing right into the harbour, under a heavy cross-fire from the shore-batteries, and landing the troops without losing a man. He was afterwards employed by
Lord William Bentinck on staff duties at
Tarragona and at
Genoa, and attained the rank of brevet-colonel in 1814. After the renewal of hostilities in 1815, when the Austrian and Piedmontese armies of occupation, a hundred thousand strong, entered France, Coffin was attached, in the capacity of British military commissioner with the rank of brigadier-general, to the Austro-Sardinians, who crossed
Mont Cenis, and remained with them until they quitted French territory, in accordance with the
Treaty of Paris.
St. Helena In 1817 he was appointed regimental major of the Royal Staff Corps, at headquarters,
Hythe, Kent, and in 1819 was nominated Lieutenant-governor and second in command under
Sir Hudson Lowe at
St. Helena, in the room of Sir George Bingham, returned home. This portion of Coffin's services has been left unnoticed by most historians and biographers. When Sir Hudson Lowe left the island in July 1821, after the death of the
imperial captive, Coffin succeeded to the command, which he held until, the last of the
King's troops having been removed, he was relieved, in March 1823, by Brigadier-general Alexander Walker,
HEICS, when the government of the island reverted for some years to the
East India Company. Coffin's correspondence with the council of the island, which was at first disposed to question his authority, will be found in the archives of the
British Library. Coffin was advanced to the rank of major-general in 1825.
Personal life He married, in 1820, the only daughter of George Monkland, late of Belmont, Bath, by whom he had no issue. He died at Bath on 10 February 1830. Coffin was the English translator of
Stutterheim's
Account of the Battle of Austerlitz (London, 1806). == Sources ==